Marketing Sucks

Man, I could totally market someone else with in your face, win at all costs strategies.

Me, I'm sort of feeling like apologizing to my folks on Facebook for creating a music "fan" page and inviting them to join, even that is the standard way to do it. I mean I should just ruthlessly put my info out there every day to drive up album downloads. I am thinking about an ad if it's not too expensive.

I'm also sorry this whole online album thing happened after I left Grinnell. The people there who I played with, inspired me to be true to myself, and were just friends when I needed them....I wish they were all here to celebrate. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled it happened, but the timing sucked. It would have been nice to have a big party at The Phoenix, with Brian being a smart-ass, Laura hovering, Kamal sitting down, Adam laughing...I'm getting pretty misty just thinking about it...sheesh.

That being said, it's all going pretty good. I just need to overcome my marketing phobia and figure out how to play live solo.

Send Me Your Ideas!

Ok! Now I've got music at at least three national retailers, iTunes Amazon and Napster!

But since there is really no reason yet they should type in "Randy Brush" when looking for new music, I need some suggestions about getting heard....so far.

1. NPR?
2. KDIC (when school starts)
3. Radio Stations here...(I'm going to check, but "Spike's" and "Cafe'" not regular Arkansas fare, but we'll see...I'm going to try anyway)
4. Live shows! (yet to be worked out down here)
5. Put live "play" widgets on other websites (I can do that, but I need country-wide help)

all ideas appreciated!

Help!

(Hi Brita!)

Self-Marketing is really hard

I'm really excited and happy that the two albums have been placed with two national retailers, really...I've just never been a "self-promoter" and I need to become one, or at least get better at it with the few skills I possess.

I also need to figure out a live show. I met another drummer from here at a concert the other night, so he's supposed to come over to the house and we'll see if he gets an invite.

After, Scooter and Mallory...and BCS and Adam... my standards are high!

BUT I WILL FIGURE IT OUT! If I can get "Spike's World Of Percussion" published at age 54, I think I can get together a performing troupe...

Now if I can just get over my current obsession with collecting skulls.

Randini

Album is up on iTunes and Amazon MP3

My percussion album "Spike's World Of Percussion" is now up on iTunes and at Amazon.com MP3...holy moley!

I am really so happy right now!

Some issues

Having trouble finding other percussionists fully versed in hand-drumming, who also know classical tambourine style, triangle technique, and where to lay the clave'.

Spoiled, that's me...

The good news is the interested people are willing to learn (grin)

Group Configuration

So, after The Phoenix Trio and TRIANGLE, I'm a little spoiled when it comes to groups. I have one guy already, coincidentally my first drum student,,,who is very, very good, and he thinks he has a bass player.

I've decided to add a bass player to this permutation of my original material to give it more of a bottom then TRIANGLE did, since I'm starting from scratch here. The good news is that there is a new coffee joint in Batesville, with a huge performing space and they are looking for new acts, and want to get in good with the college (Lyon)

So, I'm thinking some variants on the tongue drum "tunes" I've done, write a couple of more "improvisational roadmaps" with a drumset and a bass player, we can do a "everybody join in" deal, and have someone solo over the top of it on either a tongue drum, or the Alessis synthesizer I have. I've decided to use that with the loop pedal, and leave the electronic drum pads out.

The whole loop pedal thing I think is still a kickin' idea, but something electronic needs to be the first layer, since I like using a click track to set the 8 bar or 16 bar loop parameters. As the group rehearses more, we can try the odd loop variants I tried in Iowa, which are not dependent on bar lengths, but rather exploit the actual time available. I think this makes it interesting because things come up at different times, and are not confined to conventional music structure.

Spike's World of Percussion

This will be my record of how it goes in Batesville, Arkansas as I try to form a group to perform original percussion based music composed largely by myself.

First Entry and test. That is all.